USA vs hip hop
A Historical Examination of The War on Drugs, Mass Incarceration, Police Misconduct, and Politics told through the lens of Hip-Hop Music.
Show Deck
EPISodes
STORY
The art of Hip-Hop music has not only defined generations, it has reported on social and criminal justice from the start. The United States of America looked itself in the mirror through forty years of the musical genre. This mirror, in turn, reflected all of societies’ major issues and complex policies that remain to this day in terms of policing, over-crowded jails, marginalized neighborhoods, public education, and the imbalance of economic wealth. Hip-Hop music is American art that reflects itself in profound ways. A country at War with itself is also at War with Hip-Hop. The music in 2020 has transcended race and class; it has become intertwined with the American Dream and the Amerikkkan Nightmare.
Each season of the United States of America vs. Hip-Hop, we will trace in chronological order the defining events of the music as it pertains to criminal justice, the connection between federal and state law enforcement, mass incarceration, social justice reform, and public policy. These singular events defined the music, and how Americans have categorized race and American exceptionalism. You can’t have Hip-Hop without the War on Drugs and vice versa.
This sprawling anthology will outline in immense detail the Hip-Hop stars, American gangsters, and law enforcement agencies that were intertwined in a narrative that strangely connects like a puzzle starting in 1980 to present day. Four Seasons of the podcast will break down these connections in each era.